The Egyptian music scene has always had prominent female figures in it but has always been dominated by male artists and creators. As new genres have risen to popularity such as Egyptian rap and trap music, they’ve become genres almost completely run by male figures. Egyptian female artists
Cairo West is spotlighting women pushing against the glass ceiling to carve a place for themselves in different areas in music.
By Farah ElAbd
Tasneem Elaidy
Tasneem Elaidy is a 20-year-old singer, songwriter, and pianist who burst onto the scene after a video of her singing Astronaut In The Ocean by Masked Wolf went viral on TikTok and Instagram. Her video got over 8 million views on TikTok, even the song’s original performer, Masked Wolf noticed her! Egyptian female artists
After a smashing duet with him – upon his request – was posted, she gained a massive amount of followers and more online attention. Tasneem is a student at The American University in Cairo majoring in both music production and performance.
She started using social media to post videos of her covers to help launch her music career, and has amassed over 1.8 million followers on Instagram, and 3.3 million on TikTok. Tasneem has an EP out on all music platforms named ‘Blue’ containing three songs, of which she has written two. Keep your eyes peeled to this extremely talented and promising young artist, and wait for more original music by Tasneem!
Perrie El Hariri
Perrie El Hariri who goes by Perrie, is a half Egyptian/Moroccan singer, rapper, sound engineer, and music producer. She writes, performs, produces, as well as mixes and masters her own songs.
She lived in the UK for six years while working as well as studying sound engineering and production, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree with honors. Perrie started to be known in the indie Egyptian scene after releasing a response or more of a diss track to the then trending song Salmonella by Tameem Youness called Shigella, which represents the woman’s point of view to unwanted advances by guys.
Although she’s been singing for almost a decade now, it’s her rapping in Arabic that amassed most of her fans currently. She shines in performing freestyles and writing her own tracks which reflect the great passion and talent she has for rapping, and her goal of empowering women in the music industry.
Her latest track, a feature with Egyptian rapper and producer Abyusif titled Mamlaka, was trending on Youtube, and established Perrie as a big presence in the rap scene whose journey is just beginning!
Iman Junaidi
Iman Junaidi is one of the most inspiring examples of Egyptian females in the music industry. Iman broke ceilings when she became the first female maestro from Upper Egypt and was honored by the Egyptian First Lady, Intisar El Sisi during the celebration ceremony of Egyptian Women’s Day.
She also won second Best Maestro at the Fayoum Festival and seven other awards, beating over 32 male candidates. After graduating from the Faculty of Music Education in 1992, she worked as a music teacher and later was sent by the Ministry of Education to teach abroad in Oman and Kuwait.
She was promoted to lead the Beni Suef Band of Arabic Music, the first woman to lead an orchestra for Arab music, and became the leader of the Beni Suef University of Music. She has won, alongside her orchestra, second and third places in Arab music competitions year after year, and is showing young Egyptian girls, especially from Upper Egypt, that they can achieve everything their dreams. Egyptian female artists
Dareen
Dareen Salama is an Egyptian hip-hop and rap artist born in 2002. Dareen is from Alexandria and has always had a passion for music, which led her to become one of the youngest rappers in the mostly male Egyptian scene. Dareen’s career is just starting, she’s been writing and releasing tracks since 2020, with more surely to come.
Dina El Wedidi
Dina El Wedidi is an Egyptian singer, composer, and producer who has been performing since 2011. Dina performed with different artists throughout her career after joining the El Warsha theatre troupe in 2008. She did a variety of folk and traditional musical pieces with El Warsha, before leaving to form her own band in 2011.
Dina gained popularity during the time around the Egyptian revolution when she collaborated with artists like, Massar Egbari, Tamer Shalaby, and Tunisian artists on the modern operetta Khalina Nehlam, a huge hit that addressed the Arab Spring of 2011.
In late 2012, she then joined The Nile Project, in which she collaborated with artists from 11 East African countries and incorporated influences from these cultures into her music. In that same year, she was selected by Gilberto Gil and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative as a protégé. Egyptian female artists
During the last few years, Dina has completely changed her artistic direction towards a more experimental style. Her last album is an experimental electronic album, in which she used a unique instrument: trains! She used layers of processed train sounds which she sings over, resulting in a truly unique and different musical experience.
Yousra El Gendy
Yousra El Gendy is an Egyptian singer, music producer, and songwriter. Yousra has collaborated with musician Ezz Shahawan called Takh; where she handles vocals, lyrics, and melody. Their song Call Me Ziko caught on quickly due to its unique lyrics and style of singing, which made the song one-of-its-kind!
The song which really put Yousra’s name on the map in the music scene though was Bakalemak Mesh Betrod, a song released in 2020 in the form of a dialogue between her and Mohamed Mekkawy, where the lyrics are sung back and forth between them as if they’re having an argument through the phone. The song went viral after tons of celebrities sang it in videos and duets on TikTok and Instagram.
Yousra has had mainstream success as well, releasing the duet song Casanova with Mohamed Ramadan in 2020; his first duet with a female singer, and his second overall collaboration with an artist. She also wrote and sang Amazon Egypt’s jingle for their latest advertisement campaign. Yousra is never afraid to think outside of the box or to present her true personality through her songs, which makes us always excited to see what she has in store!
